The 30×30 Pledge

Actions policing agencies can take to advance women

Introduction

The 30×30 Pledge is a series of no- or low-cost actions policing agencies can take to improve the representation and experiences of women in sworn positions in all ranks.

These actions reflect what police leaders, researchers, and industry experts have indicated are critical to:

Understanding the current state of a department with regards to gender equity;
Understanding factors that may be driving disparities; and
Developing and implementing strategies and solutions to advance women in policing.

Agencies who sign the 30×30 Pledge have agreed to:

Take measures to increase the representation of women in all ranks of law enforcement;
Ensure that policies and procedures are free of all bias;
Promote equitable hiring, retention and promotion of women officers; and
Ensure their culture is inclusive, respectful, and supportive of women in all ranks and roles of law enforcement.

Diversity and Inclusion

There is no universal experience of being a woman in law enforcement. Each of a woman officer’s many identities — race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and more — defines her experience, and often multiplies her exposure to discrimination.

Black women and other women of color, in particular, face compounding experiences of bias and discrimination in law enforcement because of their race or ethnicity, in addition to their gender. Transgender and gender non-conforming officers face discrimination on the basis of their gender identity and presentation. Other identities, too, shape a woman officer’s experience in law enforcement: a mother or caregiver may require a modified schedule for caretaking duties, or a pregnant officer may require certain physical accommodations.

It is critical that participating agencies focus on increasing the representation of all women. They must account for the diverse experiences of women of all backgrounds and life experiences to better promote the creation of a diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone.

Overlapping circles showing how identities intersect, by Rupert Millard (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Pledge Actions

Pledge actions are categorized as “essential,” “strongly recommended,” and “recommended”

Essential

All participating agencies should complete elements deemed “essential” if possible. These are foundational to understanding the current state of the agency and meeting basic minimum standards.

Agencies may choose only to complete essential items because:

Data analysis shows there are no gender disparities; and/or
The agency lacks the capacity, resources, and/or authority to pursue additional actions.

Strongly recommended

These elements are helpful to agencies seeking to diagnose why disparities exist, to improve relevant policies, and establish organizational solutions to remove latent bias.

Phase 1

Target: First 6 months

Baseline Data

Collect and report the following:

1. Number of sworn officers
2. Demographics of sworn officers across rank and assignment at the time of pledge signing
3. Number of recruits from the past 12 months (reported at the 6 month and 24 month marks from pledge signing)
4. Demographics of recruits from the past 12 months (reported at the 6 month and 24 month marks from signing)

Distribute an anonymous survey to women officers to learn their concerns, priorities, and perspectives on culture, equity, and opportunity within the department.

Note: There are several free web-based survey options available for this task, and our team has drafted sample questions to guide survey development.

Immediate Action Items

1. Formally make hiring, retaining, and promoting qualified women a strategic priority for your agency through public statements and internal orders, and include improving gender diversity in your mission statement, strategic plan, and/or other public documentation of agency priorities.
2. Affirm zero tolerance for discriminatory practices or harassment, particularly with regard to demographics such as gender and gender identity, race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
3. Ensure there is a designated space for nursing mothers who have returned to work after giving birth to express breast milk (pump) as needed. This space must be private and sanitary (e.g., not the women’s bathroom or a cruiser). Provide dedicated refrigeration space for storing breast milk. Include seating, cleaning supplies, and all other requirements for making the space appropriate and workable, such as working electrical outlets.
4. Allow nursing mothers—especially those on patrol—flexibility in their schedules to accommodate expressing breast milk in designated space.
5. Ensure all equipment for women officers is appropriate and fit to the officer’s proportions (e.g., uniforms, firearms, ballistic-resistant vests).

Phase 2

Target: 12 months from signing for all essential elements. 24 for months from signing for additional elements.

Diagnostic Data and Demographics

Collect aggregated data as indicated below. For all data collection related to individual demographics, agencies should aim to capture gender, race/ethnicity, and age, if possible.

Hiring

Essential

Applicants to be sworn officers
Individuals hired as sworn officers

Strongly Recommended

Individuals conducting background investigations and assessments

Promotion

Essential

Sworn officers who apply for promotions across rank, for both civil service and discretionary promotions if applicable
Sworn officers who receive promotions across rank, for both civil service and discretionary promotions if applicable

Strongly Recommended

Individuals serving on promotional panels

Retention & Culture

Essential

Sworn officers voluntarily separating from the agency (including through retirement)

Strongly Recommended

Number of substantiated and unsubstantiated sexual harassment complaints across demographics
Number of substantiated and unsubstantiated complaints for all other types of harassment across demographics

Recruitment

Strongly Recommended

Individuals responding to your recruitment strategies and/or attending recruitment events

Action Items

Hiring

Essential

Review your hiring data. If the proportion of women applicants is higher than the proportion of women hired, this may indicate latent bias in the assessment process.
Ensure assessors and background investigators receive bias training (or analogous training) at least annually.

Strongly Recommended

Review your assessment processes and identify areas that require subjective rather than objective assessment. Seek to minimize subjectivity.
Articulate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences required to be an effective police officer in your jurisdiction. Compare these with the content of your assessments. Are your assessments measuring and prioritizing these items? If not, revise accordingly.
Review the demographics of your assessors and background investigators. They ideally should reflect the demographics you seek to hire. Adjust if necessary.

If your assessments have not yet undergone content validation or an analogous process, do so.
Review your application process and identify possible barriers to completion, such as an arbitrary administrative fee. Remove barriers that are not directly tied to measuring applicant ability to serve as a sworn officer
Review the demographic data of applicants at each stage of the hiring/assessment process. Are there points in your hiring and assessment process where you are losing a disproportionate number of women applicants? If so, are they necessary, validated, and objective? If not, remove them.

Promotion

Essential

Review your promotional data. If the proportion of women applicants is higher than the proportion of women promoted, this may indicate latent bias in your promotional processes.
Ensure individuals sitting on promotional panels receive bias training (or analogous training) at least annually.
Ensure agency policy requires that all promotional opportunities be posted internally.

Strongly Recommended

Review your promotion processes and identify areas that require subjective rather than objective assessment. Seek to minimize subjectivity.
Review officer demographic data across rank and assignment. Are women disproportionately assigned to specific roles/responsibilities? This may indicate latent bias in the assignment process. Note: Some of these assignments may be due to self-selection. If your agency uses a “bid” system, analyze that data separately.
Review the demographics of individuals serving on promotional panels. They ideally should be at least as proportionately demographically diverse as the department overall, if not more so. Adjust if necessary.
Articulate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences required for supervisory positions. Compare these with the content of your promotional assessments. Are your assessments measuring and prioritizing these items? If not, revise accordingly.

If your assessments have not yet undergone content validation or an analogous process, do so.
Review your assignment and deployment processes. Are there opportunities to minimize discretion and subjectivity? If so, revise processes accordingly.
Review your department’s programs and strategies to support professional development. Do you have a formal mentorship and/or shadowing program to support officers who intend to seek promotions? If not, implement such a program.
Review your training data. If the number of women formally seeking leadership-relevant training is higher than the number of women receiving that training, this may indicate latent bias in the selection process.

Retention & Culture

Essential

Review your voluntary separation data. If the number of women officers voluntarily leaving the department is proportionally greater than men (as compared to the gender breakdown of the department), this could indicate gender-relevant issues in the department.
Track completion rates for sexual harassment and other related training, and take action necessary to achieve 100% completion rates. If you do not have such a training, implement it.

Strongly Recommended

Begin (or continue) to conduct exit interviews with all officers voluntarily separating from the department (including through retirement). Analyze responses for insights and trends, especially across genders.
Review your harassment data. If the proportion of complaints filed by women is proportionally greater than men (as compared to the gender breakdown of the department), or if the proportion of unsubstantiated claims is higher for women than men, this could indicate gender-relevant issues in the department. Note: Formal complaints only tell a part of the story. Be sure to include relevant questions regarding harassment and the complaint process in your survey and focus groups
Review your reporting processes for sexual and other harassment. Ensure they meet best practices, particularly with regards to enforcement, accountability, and conflicts of interest.

Conduct focus groups with a representative sample of officers to learn their concerns, priorities, and perspectives on culture, equity, and opportunity within the department. Also, consider including civilian employees in your sample to understand their perspective and how it may differ from sworn officers.
Review the narratives of substantiated and unsubstantiated claims of sexual and other harassment. If the number of complaints is considerably large, reviewing a representative sample of complaints is acceptable. Try to identify themes and trends across demographics.
Review discipline and commendation data. Are there significant differences across demographic groups, especially gender? If yes, the under- or over-representation of a demographic group may indicate latent or overt bias in the system.

Recruitment

Essential

Articulate the duties and day-to-day activities of a police officer and what it takes for an officer to be effective in these scenarios. Does your recruitment content accurately represent the totality of these activities and skills? If not, revise accordingly.
Do individuals in your recruitment content reflect the demographics of the community you serve? If not, revise accordingly.

Strongly Recommended

Review data about who is responding to your recruitment strategies and/or attending recruitment events. If you are not reaching the communities you seek to hire, engage experts and community leaders about how best to reach desired populations. Revise your strategy accordingly.

Planning

Target: Begin 6 months from pledge signing. Final version (including insights from the above action items and data) due 24 months from pledge signing.

Strategic Plan to Advance Women in Policing

Based on your review of data, analysis of your policies and procedures, and insights from your focus groups and survey, work with command staff to create a plan that captures your efforts to address concerns and implement improvements. Seek and integrate regular input from all ranks. Where possible, tie measurable targets to your action items (e.g., aim for a 50% increase of women responding to revised recruitment strategies within a certain timeframe).

Agencies are encouraged to begin developing their strategic plan no later than six months from pledge signing, and to contribute regularly to strategies and priorities as new insights are gained through the pledge process.

Are you an agency leader interested in signing the pledge?

The first cohort of 30×30 agencies, Class 1, has closed. Class 2 is open! If you are part of a policing agency interested in joining Class 2, please sign up on our Get Involved page.